Sight · Grand Teton National Park
Moran’s dark stripe is a magma-filled crack nearly a billion years old.
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The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Grand Teton Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Grand Teton National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Grand Teton audio tourRecorded for this place
Mount Moran Turnout: The Painter’s Namesake“Mount Moran Turnout is coming up, a quick roadside stop for a straight-on look at the mountain’s east face.”
Plays as you drive up to Mount Moran Turnout in the Parkwolf Grand Teton Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“…We have been driving around with the audio tour and it has been informational and spot on. The whole family has been impressed. We used it for Yellowstone and Grand Teton.”
Guide
Mount Moran Turnout is a roadside viewpoint on Teton Park Road with a straight-on view of Mount Moran’s east face, the dominant peak in the northern Teton Range. Treat it as a brief pull-in for the view, not a hiking destination; a surface parking area sits beside the viewpoint. Traveling north from South Jenny Lake Junction, it’s at mile 14.6, between Mountain View Turnout and Potholes Turnout. The stop is listed as wheelchair accessible, though the route and surface details aren’t specified.
The most distinctive mark is a nearly vertical black line on the east face. It’s a diabase dike: magma that filled a crack in the mountain’s older rock almost a billion years ago. Erosion later stripped away the surrounding rock and left the dike exposed. Mount Moran has a cap of sedimentary rock over a much older igneous and metamorphic core, and Little Ice Age glaciers flank its slopes.
Thomas Moran, the landscape painter whose name the mountain carries, joined the 1872 Hayden expedition into Yellowstone. His sketches and watercolors helped introduce the Greater Yellowstone region to Eastern audiences. He visited the west side of the Tetons but never saw the mountain named for him.
Pick out the dike against the lighter east face and keep some of the treeline below it to show the mountain’s scale. The turnout gives a direct view, so the classic composition is available from the roadside without a separate walk.
Wildlife
172 sightingsGrizzly BearMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
195 sightingsBrown BearMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
32 sightingsGray WolfMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
1,816 sightingsMooseMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
614 sightingsBisonMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
738 sightingsElkMost seen around 7 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Grand Teton. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
ModerateSignal Mountain Trail6.8 mi · 4 hr · 3.1 mi awayA steady forest climb earns Jackson Lake and Teton views.
ChallengingHolly Lake Trail12.8 mi · 8 hr · 4.5 mi awayA full-day climb from String Lake to a high alpine lake.
ChallengingPaintbrush Canyon - Cascade Canyon Loop19.9 mi · 12.5 hr · 4.5 mi awayTwo canyons, one high pass, and a long day in the Tetons.
EasyCunningham Cabin Historic Trail0.2 mi · 15 min · 4.5 mi awayA short cabin walk for Jackson Hole history and Teton views.
EasyString Lake Loop3.7 mi · 2.5 hr · 4.6 mi awayEasy lake circuit, gentler east shore, climbing west ridge.
EasyLeigh Lake Trail1.8 mi · 1.5 hr · 4.6 mi awayA short lakeshore walk ends where String meets Leigh.
ModerateBearpaw and Trapper Lakes Trail9.2 mi · 5 hr · 4.6 mi awayLong lake shores lead to Bearpaw, Trapper, and a view of Moran.
ModerateBearpaw Lake Trail7.8 mi · 4.5 hr · 4.6 mi awayA long forest walk to Bearpaw Lake, with little climbing.
Sight · 0.7 mi awayPotholes TurnoutA glacial kettle tucked into sagebrush flats.
Sight · 2.2 mi awaySpalding Bay Boat Launch and Camp AreaSmall-boat access with two permit-only campsites beside Jackson Lake.
Scenic pullout · 2.8 mi awayMountain View TurnoutA wide Teton panorama without a hike
Campground · 3 mi awaySignal Mountain CampgroundPine-shaded camping, lake walks, and select Mount Moran views.
Sight · 3.1 mi awayDeadmans BarA river launch with a dark 1886 story and a tough run.
Store · 3.1 mi awaySignal Mountain General StoreFuel, ice and campsite basics when you're deep in the park.
Restaurant · 3.2 mi awayThe Trapper GrillBreakfast, lunch or dinner with Jackson Lake in view.
Sight · 3.2 mi awaySignal Mountain MarinaBoat rentals put Jackson Lake and Mount Moran in reach.Parkwolf’s Grand Teton ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
